tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40780553600464759632024-03-05T16:06:34.528-08:00Flapper Flickers and Silent StanzasOne foot in the 20s/30s, one foot in now.Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17519672156109642104noreply@blogger.comBlogger261125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078055360046475963.post-31737285660843113802016-05-04T07:39:00.001-07:002016-05-04T07:40:02.107-07:00Hello Everyone! <br />
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This blog has been silent (ha) for a long time, but it was for a very good reason.<br />
May I present to you...<br />
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<b>REELS & RIVALS: Sisters in Silent Film</b></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/REELS-RIVALS-Sisters-Silent-Films/dp/1593939256" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRXyxNbLdnTeq5soME11NtB8wpEN_IN2C2MEv5MS7bbqiIXBiO2PJSy1iIueI4DUnQWnzNArbaR-nze2LD7rO7WUlx2ikb4kOEyVVVdxSl4jSwUZvvQRlqOqLcC9G3__bIWVSxplpwD2I/s320/ReelsRivals-500x500.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>
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The last year and a half was a flurry of scribbling, typing, editing, more typing, more editing...it was hard work and I loved every moment of it. You'll find profiles of well-known sisters like Mae and Marguerite Marsh, obscure sisters like Alma and Olive Tell, even vaudeville acts like the Dolly Sisters. Violent marriages, heartbreaking tragedies. drastic surgeries. secret identities...these were sisters with secrets!<br />
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If you choose to read it (and I hope you do), please let me know what you think!<br />
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Available from Amazon (click the photo) or directly from the publisher, <a href="http://www.bearmanormedia.com/reels-and-rivals-sisters-in-silent-film-hardcover-edition-by-jennifer-ann-redmond" target="_blank">BearManor Media</a>.Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17519672156109642104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078055360046475963.post-21890944963342086352014-10-01T10:45:00.000-07:002014-10-01T10:47:14.464-07:00Save the Vitagraph Smokestack 2.0Those of you who have been following my blog for awhile might remember the petition I started back in early 2012, to try and rescue this piece of history from the wrecking ball. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful in winning over the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, who claimed it was only a "fragment" of the original Vitagraph complex and, therefore, not eligible for status. <br />
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Today I was contacted by Melissa Friedling, founder of Slouch Productions and teacher at the prestigious New School; the smokestack has scaffolding around it and looks in danger of imminent demolition, an action sure to break the hearts of film and history-savvy New Yorkers. So...<br />
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Ms Friedling is taking up the gauntlet and refusing to let the smokestack go without a fight. <br />
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Please, all of you, sign her petition and support this cause! Perhaps it's not too late after all!<br />
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http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/save-the-vitagraph-smokestack<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">© <span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, 'Lucida Grande', arial, sans-serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 13px; text-align: start;">Frank H. Jump used with permission</span></span></span></td></tr>
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<br />Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17519672156109642104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078055360046475963.post-25430999378591848962014-09-08T06:31:00.000-07:002014-09-08T06:40:06.593-07:00Review Roundup: VIRTUE (1932) / SEARCH FOR BEAUTY (1934)Hello Readers! It's been way too long since I checked in -- hope everything's going well with you all. Things are going great for me because every Friday in September, TCM is playing pre-Codes! All the lurid goodness you can handle for 24 hours. Paradise for this film fan!<br />
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Two that I enjoyed over the weekend (hooray for DVR):<br />
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<b>VIRTUE</b> (1932) is a gritty little melodrama about Mae (Carole Lombard), a prostitute ready to walk the straight and narrow instead of the streets, and Jimmy (Pat O'Brien), the taxi driver she begins a new life with -- only to have the old one rear its ugly, two-faced head.</div>
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I was going to write a full review, but <a href="http://pre-code.com/virtue-1932-review-carole-lombard/" target="_blank">Danny at Pre-Code.com</a> has done a marvelous job of that already, so go have a look! Allow me to add that Lombard is on par with Barbara Stanwyck in this -- the entire film feels more like a down-and-dirty WB production rather than Columbia. Top-notch and I recommend it highly.</div>
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<b>SEARCH FOR BEAUTY</b> (1934) is <i>crazy</i>. The plot of a health-and-fitness magazine trying to run a beauty contest almost doesn't matter; this whole film is sex on screen with a healthy thumbing-of-the-nose at the Hays Code. It's gotta be the most salacious of the pre-Codes I've seen (and that's saying something)! <a href="http://pre-code.com/search-for-beauty-1934-review/" target="_blank">Danny at Pre-Code.com</a> again does the honors with his review. YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS MOVIE. Also: Toby Wing Speaks! She gets actual billing! </div>
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You may wonder why I'm no longer doing my own reviews. Well, the fact is: there are so many other bloggers that are much, <i>much </i>better at it than I am! So you'll continue to see poems, actor profiles, and other interesting tidbits on FF+SS, but reviews will be from other film bloggers worth your attention (and boy, are there some wonderful ones)! I'll still be adding my two cents though. ;)</div>
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Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17519672156109642104noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078055360046475963.post-89862245420867758452014-03-04T08:42:00.000-08:002014-03-04T08:43:26.571-08:00Follow Me, Boys (and Girls)!Hello Dear Readers!<br />
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Don't delete me just yet -- every now and then I'll be posting here -- but if you haven't followed me on Facebook or Twitter, you should! I'll be updating there regularly. <br />
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Flapper-Flickers-Silent-Stanzas/122663401835" target="_blank">Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzas on Facebook</a><br />
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<a href="https://twitter.com/JA_Redmond" target="_blank">FF + SS on Twitter</a><br />
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Hope to see you!<br />
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<br />Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17519672156109642104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078055360046475963.post-53946082084113409092014-01-16T06:23:00.000-08:002014-01-16T06:23:05.767-08:00Five Facts About: House Peters<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhegP5X-1qZZXRvGfIbjD5jYzKTdPZ9PammgrTKk3UH2xOOA1EL4cBR6bMLNe012ddepfxgdYehRGpuOTwhV5Z-k147w5Ib5EcB-UURm-LwnYT-6gj00h9YFRuPUcOqHR7ZFvHG2F_CS9c/s1600/theloudestvoice+tumblr+house+peters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhegP5X-1qZZXRvGfIbjD5jYzKTdPZ9PammgrTKk3UH2xOOA1EL4cBR6bMLNe012ddepfxgdYehRGpuOTwhV5Z-k147w5Ib5EcB-UURm-LwnYT-6gj00h9YFRuPUcOqHR7ZFvHG2F_CS9c/s1600/theloudestvoice+tumblr+house+peters.jpg" height="320" width="253" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">[image courtesy <a href="http://theloudestvoice.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">The Loudest Voice</a>]</span></div>
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1. Robert House Peters was born on March 12, 1880 in Bristol, England. He didn't stay put long, traveling extensively as a young man; he sailed to China, India, Australia, New Zealand, and Central Africa (where he served in the Boer War) before returning to the land of his birth.</div>
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2. He was already a well-known stage actor both in England and the US when he was chosen to enter pictures, by Jesse Lasky himself. His first film was IN THE BISHOP'S CARRIAGE (1913), opposite Mary Pickford. Not a bad intro to movies!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSqmgB0mlmquevsGhoLlb4jaGxyTOrUdAL1mOWnr05jrzFjrax7ur1W0-dNx6JHsp0IGLxUoY9Kj-R9NrS-ej_JWsIeEGEdLFs4HUsPp7cJOm_EYxcC8lcVvhDzjQlLg7E6FkXT4Lund0/s1600/tumblr_mifex02NAE1rdst7zo1_1280.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSqmgB0mlmquevsGhoLlb4jaGxyTOrUdAL1mOWnr05jrzFjrax7ur1W0-dNx6JHsp0IGLxUoY9Kj-R9NrS-ej_JWsIeEGEdLFs4HUsPp7cJOm_EYxcC8lcVvhDzjQlLg7E6FkXT4Lund0/s1600/tumblr_mifex02NAE1rdst7zo1_1280.png" height="201" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">[image courtesy <a href="http://indypendentfilms.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">Please Pass the Popcorn</a>]</span></div>
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3. Became a very popular star of the teens, and was billed as "The Star of a Thousand Emotions". Unfortunately, those emotions were always of the "good guy", which he lamented:</div>
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<i>I've always got to be the He-ro. I don't mind rescuing the lovely maiden -- that's fair enough; but why must I always be condemned to marry the heroine, pay off the mortgage, and live happy everafter? I tell you it gets to be monotonous. What do they think I am -- a Mormon?</i></div>
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[Allen Corliss, "They Won't Let Him Be Bad", <i>Photoplay, </i>August 1916]</div>
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4. His biggest film was THE GIRL OF THE GOLDEN WEST (1915), but after that, his career backslid. He tried for a comeback in the early 20s, but by 1928 House Peters was effectively finished. His last film was from that same year -- ROSE MARIE, starring Joan Crawford. He came out of retirement for one movie in the 1950s, which brings us to #5...</div>
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5. He married in 1914, and had three children: Ian and Patricia, who dabbled a bit in film, and House Peters Jr, who worked extensively in B-movies and TV spots throughout the 1950s and 60s. The vast majority of his resume was Westerns, one of which -- THE OLD WEST (1952) -- starred him alongside his father. However, House Peters Jr is best known for one particular role he held from the late 50s to the early 60s: the original portrayer of Mr Clean.<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">[image courtesy <a href="http://www.nationalenquirer.com/" target="_blank">The National Enquirer</a> (I know!)]</span></div>
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House Peters passed away in 1967. His son died in 2008.Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17519672156109642104noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078055360046475963.post-19659536327858444712014-01-09T07:43:00.002-08:002014-01-09T07:43:40.206-08:00Manly P Hall and the Mysticism of 1920s California<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is Manly Palmer Hall. He was born in Ontario, Canada, on March 18, 1901. Striking, no?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">[image courtesy <a href="http://www.manlyphall.org/articles/the-great-work-of-manly-hall/" target="_blank">The Manly P Hall Archive</a>]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Young Manly, accompanied by his maternal grandmother, moved to California to reunite with his mother in
1919. (He never knew his father.) California then was just as much
Hippieland USA as it was in the 1960s, maybe even more:</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Victorian Era started the ball rolling with Spiritualism, Theosophy
and The Golden Dawn. Between these, all the concepts that would grow and be
experimented with through the 20th century emerged: mediuimship/channeling,
clairovoyance, astral projection, astrology, mixtures of eastern and western
religious concepts, past lives, ceremonial magick, cabalic esotericism for non
Jews, the list is endless.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>During the 1800s Lodges were how it was done. But in the new 20th
century things were changing. People with interesting systems of alternative
spirituality were discovering a way to actually achieve stability was to form a
little hub in LA...[o]ver the decade as Los Angeles’ reputation grew, it
attracted droves of occultists and those wanting to start their own systems of
alternative spirituality as well as all the young Hollywood fodder. </i>["Los
Angeles and the 1920s Occult Explosion", <a href="http://steampunkopera.wordpress.com/2013/04/04/los-angeles-and-the-1920s-occult-explosion/" target="_blank">A STEAMPUNK OPERA</a>]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mom fit in perfectly -- she was a Rosicrucian (a secret philosophical
society, Wiki definition <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosicrucians" target="_blank">here</a>) and a
practicing chiropractor. Chiropractic was still in its infancy then, having
only been founded in 1895; early on it was still considered a pseudoscience of
sorts, containing heavy doses of
metaphysics and spiritualism, so it fit in beautifully to the cosmic Cali
atmosphere.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Manly was fascinated and jumped in with both feet, becoming a student of Sydney J Brownson, a "doctor" of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrenology" target="_blank">phrenology </a>(yup, the "bumps on the head" thing). Although he only possessed a sixth grade education, he was extremely bright, with a voracious appetite
for all things occult and esoteric. The
intense young man took over as preacher for Church of the People in 1919, and
became permanent pastor only a few days after his ordination in 1923.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hall was already a well-regarded lecturer before the age of 21, and
wrote over 200 books and pamphlets on mystical and spiritual topics between
1920 and 1950. It was one such book that
created his legacy: <a href="http://www.manlyphall.org/text/the-secret-teachings-of-all-ages/" target="_blank"> The Secret Teachings of All Ages </a>(1928), a GIGANTIC volume spanning almost every metaphysical topic known to man. It is still incredibly popular -- over one million copies have sold to date -- and it has never been out of print. Manly was brilliant, not only in the book's contents, but in its <i>marketing</i>; he created one of the first Kickstarter campaigns, offering copies at a reduced rate for contributions. He funded <u>Secret</u>'s $150,000 publication fees purely through these ads and word of mouth. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">[image courtesy <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Teachings-All-Ages/dp/1619491079/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389279027&sr=1-5&keywords=secret+teachings+of+all+ages" target="_blank">Amazon</a>]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The book made Hall a superstar. He continued collecting metaphysical knowledge, crossing the globe for rare books and manuscripts. His trips were funded by benefactors and members of his congregation. One such benefactor, Carolyn Lloyd (and her daughter Estelle), had been sponsoring Hall since the early 1920s, and upon her death left him a home, $15,000 in cash, and a $10,000 annuity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He founded the Philosophical Research Society in 1934 -- an organization devoted to <span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">"<span style="line-height: 23px;">providing resources for the study and research of the world’s wisdom literature"</span><span style="line-height: 23px;">. It</span><span style="line-height: 23px;"> </span></span></span>is still active today. Click the logo to visit. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"But Jen," I hear you asking, "where's the Hollywood connection?" </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ah, dear Readers, it's in the stars...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">WHEN WERE YOU BORN? (1938) is a crime mystery starring Anna May Wong as Mei Lee Ling, an astrologer who uses her knowledge of the zodiac to solve one murder and possibly prevent others. Hall wrote the original story for the film, which did terribly on release but has since become quite the cult movie (as you can imagine -- I mean, look at that glorious prologue!). TCM shows it from time to time, I really want to catch this one.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hollywood not only knew him, he was friends with most of them Elvis was a huge fan. Ronald Reagan borrowed much of his later political posturing from him. He even officiated at Bela Lugosi's wedding!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">[image courtesy <a href="http://wildhunt.org/2014/01/unleash-the-hounds-link-roundup-117.html" target="_blank">The Wild Hunt</a>]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hall's private life was nowhere near as successful; he married twice, the first ending in suicide, the second an unhappy one with a woman biographer<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"> <span style="line-height: 16px;">Louis</span><span style="line-height: 16px;"> Sahagun</span></span></span> refers to as "emotionally abusive". </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Manly P Hall died August 29, 1990, aged 89, under grotesque and suspicious circumstances:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>In the ultimate, final tragedy, this man who believed in reincarnation
and who had planned to leave the earthly plane consciously, might have been the
victim of a greedy plot devised by his assistant Daniel Fritz, who rewrote
Hall's will. Hall's body was found under suspicious and horrifying
circumstances, apparently dead for hours and with thousands of ants streaming
from his nose and mouth. The case was never solved. </i>[Steffie Nelson, "<a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jun/21/entertainment/et-hall21/2" target="_blank">Charting the Man Behind a Mystical City</a>", <i>Los Angeles Times</i>, June 21 2008]</span><br />
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<br />Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17519672156109642104noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078055360046475963.post-42232984331460391102013-11-07T06:54:00.000-08:002013-11-07T07:21:21.607-08:00Corliss Palmer, The Million Dollar Beauty<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Every girl is born a princess, blessed by the fairies with beauty, health, joy, charm...at the same time, the evil fairy also was present with her curse.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">--Corliss Palmer, "In League With the Fairies", <i>Motion Picture Magazine</i>, March 1921</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Corliss
Palmer was aimlessly thumbing through a fan magazine, just like any other
teenager, when something caught her eye:
an unassuming little column at the back of the book, announcing the
“Fame and Fortune Contest” for 1920.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Fame and fortune,”
she thought to herself. “Could you just
imagine?” She could see herself swathed
in furs, eating at the finest restaurants, admiring the diamond bracelet on her
wrist – and the man on her arm. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">She was
pretty, this she already knew. So did everyone
else, since she was crowned “Miss Georgia Peach”. Sending a photo in seemed like a long shot,
but it was worth a try, right? She cut
the coupon out of the ad and set to work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">**<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Eugene
Brewster, publisher of <i>Motion Picture Magazine, </i>sat listlessly at the heavy wood table. He’d been rifling through the photos for that
infernal contest all morning; he was tired, bored, and his patience was wearing
thin. Until he saw this:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Brewster was
known for his eye for the ladies, but he had never seen one like her
before. He was speechless. He was smitten.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He was also
married. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Had been
since 1916. At that moment, though, his
wife was the furthest thing from his mind.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So begins the
tale of Palmer and Brewster, a sordid little story all too common then – and now. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Corliss would
(surprise!) go on to win the “Fame and Fortune Contest” and was touted as “The
Most Beautiful Woman in America”. Her
photos took up a good chunk of the publication.
She’s mentioned so frequently that, if you didn't know better, you’d
think her the most famous woman in Hollywood!
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">She appeared
in a few films, most of which are lost and/or forgotten, save one comedy short:
BROMO AND JULIET (1926), featuring a pre-Laurel Oliver Hardy and considered one
of Charley Chase’s best. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">[image courtesy <a href="http://www.fandor.com/films/bromo_and_juliet" target="_blank">Fandor</a>]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Brewster
continued to make Corliss his personal project.
He founded a studio for her, CORLISS PALMER PRODUCTIONS, and gave her a (almost
certainly ghostwritten) monthly beauty column in <i>Motion Picture Magazine</i>. These columns led to a spinoff publication,
BEAUTY, with you-know-who on the cover. All
his time was tied up in Corliss…and, by this time, the two had become a
romantic item as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">[image courtesy eBay]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“But
Jennifer!” you might be saying. “Didn’t
you say he was married?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yes he was,
Dear Reader. Eleanor Brewster was NOT
happy with the way things were going, calling Corliss “beautiful but dumb” and “nothing
but trouble”. You can't blame her; <o:p></o:p>Brewster continued to funnel money into Corliss, creating a cosmetics line he heavily promoted in his magazine...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">...and buying her a $250,000 mansion to live in (with her mother, of course). This house was the last straw:</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let him buy whatever houses he wants. Let him move all over the country. Let him get a divorce from me. I'll let him -- at last! But it will cost him EVERY CENT he has, and that means quite a lot of money. No woman has ever been through such racking mental stress, such spiritual agony, as I have. And I intend to see that I get some recompense. </span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">--"Woes of Lovesick Brewster." <i>Buffalo Sunday Courier</i>, circa 1924.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Eleanor sued for alienation of affection, naming Corliss as co-respondent, and the Brewsters divorced in 1926. That October, Brewster and Palmer were married.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgewcFosApvW7jzsW32bikP5NvZGJRXGKZKpDAHHl1uEXA1nJRlsnxWmYOpzrTF0z2E6jeKM69C79Zyhvf59Rqlxr95RatGsnQSRYKtsG4chdL-tVNXt9jNtuOksHNDwght7JTrYjQyLhA/s1600/eugene+and+corliss.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgewcFosApvW7jzsW32bikP5NvZGJRXGKZKpDAHHl1uEXA1nJRlsnxWmYOpzrTF0z2E6jeKM69C79Zyhvf59Rqlxr95RatGsnQSRYKtsG4chdL-tVNXt9jNtuOksHNDwght7JTrYjQyLhA/s320/eugene+and+corliss.jpg" width="274" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">[image courtesy <a href="http://www.fanpix.net/2739460/015438995/eugene-brewster-and-corliss-palmer-large-picture.html" target="_blank">Fanpix</a>]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">From here, things went downhill rapidly. After the success of BROMO AND JULIET, the rest of Corliss' films did poorly. Didn't help that Eleanor was true to her word, draining Eugene of most of his fortune. By 1931, he had filed for bankruptcy (citing "bad investments") and he and Corliss were living in a tiny one-bedroom bungalow. Not long after, Brewster asked Palmer for divorce. She agreed, admitting that she never really loved him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Corliss turned to alcohol to numb the pain and confusion of losing her entire world.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2nZ3fj33yrGu4sdKgmRf4YnG4ReBy1QVwLQFg5TpwzNWhvjh0P9LQ_sQTMV1-nFt_wamLnP3oFNB8XicZ-n1Va4A15zrZiWkiuoy-I0Sr0xlmYzwHBNy24iK27GDLFacnsjn5yMdnovk/s1600/janc151.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2nZ3fj33yrGu4sdKgmRf4YnG4ReBy1QVwLQFg5TpwzNWhvjh0P9LQ_sQTMV1-nFt_wamLnP3oFNB8XicZ-n1Va4A15zrZiWkiuoy-I0Sr0xlmYzwHBNy24iK27GDLFacnsjn5yMdnovk/s1600/janc151.jpg" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">[image courtesy<a href="http://dublinlaurenscountygeorgia.blogspot.com/2009/05/corliss-palmer.html" target="_blank"> Pieces of our Past</a>]</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was blinded by self-pity...I thought if someone pitied me, they would again give me the fame, love, and fortune that I had let slip through my fingers.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While she did find true love towards the end of her life with Bill Taylor, a rodeo cowboy, she never truly came back from the spectacular rise and fall of the Brewster years. Corliss Palmer died in 1952, in a California state hospital for the mentally ill. She was only 50.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">[image courtesy <a href="http://www.movieart.com/corliss-palmer-the-million-dollar-beauty-1921-18964/" target="_blank">Movieart</a>]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bonus: <i>Fashion News of 1928. </i>Skip to 1:44 to see Corliss.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Other Sources:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>The Most Beautiful Girl in the World / Love at the End of the Rainbow: Corliss Palmer - An Epilogue</i> -- posted by Scott Thompson at <a href="http://dublinlaurenscountygeorgia.blogspot.com/2009/05/corliss-palmer.html" target="_blank">PIECES OF OUR PAST</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lowe, Denise. <u>An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Women in Early American Films, 1895-1930</u>. New York: Haworth, 2005.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Husband Broke, Beauty Still at Side". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 7, 1931.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Slide, Anthony. <u>Inside the Hollywood Fan Magazine: A History of Star Makers, Fabricators, and Gossip Mongers</u>. Jackson: University of Mississippi, 2010</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0658176/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Corliss Palmer -- IMDb</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All images (unless otherwise noted) courtesy the <a href="http://mediahistoryproject.org/fanmagazines/" target="_blank">Media History Digital Library</a>.</span>Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17519672156109642104noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078055360046475963.post-7528843164498740712013-10-31T09:10:00.001-07:002013-10-31T09:10:29.910-07:00Happy Olde-Tyme Halloween!In lieu of a post this week -- mostly because your Humble Narrator is off begging for Kit-Kats and Three Musketeers -- here's some 1920s Halloween images for all you boils and ghouls to enjoy!<br />
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I've collected these from all over -- if any are yours and you want credit, just comment and I'll fix it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCvdBEk_vFqO6-5q8W_P5AxEK159098oNyJCvOL6FvIKAVMy41aQhFd9eQ9_-_nPM6laog4Vxf3nMvdniofWtbu3E6dtlQHrHNCFScYHBakmGqUE7EAck0s4AhpS9jxEHBcNhMoM1bl5A/s1600/harold+and+gloria,+halloween,+1927.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCvdBEk_vFqO6-5q8W_P5AxEK159098oNyJCvOL6FvIKAVMy41aQhFd9eQ9_-_nPM6laog4Vxf3nMvdniofWtbu3E6dtlQHrHNCFScYHBakmGqUE7EAck0s4AhpS9jxEHBcNhMoM1bl5A/s320/harold+and+gloria,+halloween,+1927.jpg" width="260" /></a></div>
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Harold Lloyd and his daughter, Gloria, Halloween 1927</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1PP06cBOD2C-gbhHku8DsN9dot44P3gaBVN_FUtGqvKV9WQgp3lYLH_DNkrxNGikDPUCD_eemLGn1gQDYOTdWN4dDf5oJ2ZvJuwV2TdVO2PTUZ-hgrr804-mmOXNWfkCZy7rCg4We3Lc/s1600/123.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1PP06cBOD2C-gbhHku8DsN9dot44P3gaBVN_FUtGqvKV9WQgp3lYLH_DNkrxNGikDPUCD_eemLGn1gQDYOTdWN4dDf5oJ2ZvJuwV2TdVO2PTUZ-hgrr804-mmOXNWfkCZy7rCg4We3Lc/s320/123.jpg" width="276" /></a></div>
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Costume suggestions from <i>Dennison's Party Book</i>, 1927</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRuRgWw3H84iT4HVqQq6z3rX4QYlLyX_QZMDELvl3WxXOdIMB-fMYy-MC82TWerboBWRR8zLK4EeCpuVksAcmrhVXJp_1g8mttpBDaxQnPsJD_1iYHuU4x3vHvysm9SaYsferfqb8yUj4/s1600/twins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRuRgWw3H84iT4HVqQq6z3rX4QYlLyX_QZMDELvl3WxXOdIMB-fMYy-MC82TWerboBWRR8zLK4EeCpuVksAcmrhVXJp_1g8mttpBDaxQnPsJD_1iYHuU4x3vHvysm9SaYsferfqb8yUj4/s320/twins.jpg" width="257" /></a></div>
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Festive twins, circa 1920s</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqp9gdMrjDU6PLySx12QNUfR65S5xP9Rjsfd6DSpQHnUDAy92fjtyL6GwHx7zMirrXHwtofIf_0f269GkcOA5PARE236o67sYcsrKy8caDeRjHii55_5clu3nwA5HbfVObwzT72ZO9MAw/s1600/dec.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqp9gdMrjDU6PLySx12QNUfR65S5xP9Rjsfd6DSpQHnUDAy92fjtyL6GwHx7zMirrXHwtofIf_0f269GkcOA5PARE236o67sYcsrKy8caDeRjHii55_5clu3nwA5HbfVObwzT72ZO9MAw/s320/dec.jpg" width="288" /></a></div>
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A typical Twenties paper decoration</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcwbnSoSbRjWeOKudzLcUqUPM2_YwUWENxiLaiHi5RHQBa1JjdS1qQCycf_eFp4Jtz3mfd46Ss30-wLDRhEur7cGvD3FZEgk4LudqCEGmA9r0ir7bzOkRNFHiig4XsKPQiO1HeMzU08Vc/s1600/clara-witch-cats.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcwbnSoSbRjWeOKudzLcUqUPM2_YwUWENxiLaiHi5RHQBa1JjdS1qQCycf_eFp4Jtz3mfd46Ss30-wLDRhEur7cGvD3FZEgk4LudqCEGmA9r0ir7bzOkRNFHiig4XsKPQiO1HeMzU08Vc/s320/clara-witch-cats.jpg" width="248" /></a></div>
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Clara sends you off with a smile!</div>
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<br />Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17519672156109642104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078055360046475963.post-43950528385239385702013-10-24T05:58:00.003-07:002013-10-24T06:00:42.408-07:00Flawed RubyeI feel kind of bad for Rubye de Remer.<br />
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Her story starts commonly enough: she was born Ruby Burkhardt in 1892, and as a young lady joined the ranks of Ziegfeld's <i>Midnight Frolic</i>. Wasn't a long jump from there to film, her first being ENLIGHTEN THY DAUGHTER (1917). Her success on both stage and screen was frequently - and almost singularly - attributed to one thing: her looks.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaalX7jUfeOLyK2lrOv-ShQNCPPfNoppU1S8wjCi667IRov9NOsg-TqUwSqpeYUJ9lfXGqQEWCqt8vcnpKnAmYB9Va5IncgI6NTxev_Mrclz6rOFLGKZ0ZbbGcBf1QoqFHIBQzgTINHBI/s1600/fzz3aq8effhce8f3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaalX7jUfeOLyK2lrOv-ShQNCPPfNoppU1S8wjCi667IRov9NOsg-TqUwSqpeYUJ9lfXGqQEWCqt8vcnpKnAmYB9Va5IncgI6NTxev_Mrclz6rOFLGKZ0ZbbGcBf1QoqFHIBQzgTINHBI/s320/fzz3aq8effhce8f3.jpg" width="250" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">[image courtesy <a href="http://www.fanpix.net/gallery/rubye-de-remer-pictures.htm" target="_blank">fanpix.net</a>]</span></div>
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Everyone thought Rubye was gorgeous. Ziegfeld called her "the most beautiful blonde since Venus". Artist Paul Heller said she was the "ideal of American beauty". She even posed for Harrison Fisher after winning (what else?) a beauty contest in 1916. A typical fan magazine article about her went something like this:<br />
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<i>The beauty of Rubye de Remer has steeped in me like tea steeping in a tea-pot. It haunts its victim. The screen gives only half an intimation...[s]o cherubim have floated about the canvases of some of the Old Masters.</i><br />
[Gordon Gassaway, "The Lady of the Big House on the Hill". <i>Motion Picture</i>, April 1922]<br />
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It seemed Rubye was blessed...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK7WC3A6tAnt4bGRGtwyH3XdlArzhxgV8EFgGti8SJAh5gXfjZRG85txxJVwyrkj5V96eWCxcP_QkSI8s9uZuaAIXaLFXD-NyYLlMkLaYrdpEdpFGOZ5hNh0klbmFLct0UHb9eIAZMUck/s1600/ruby+cover+feb+1921.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK7WC3A6tAnt4bGRGtwyH3XdlArzhxgV8EFgGti8SJAh5gXfjZRG85txxJVwyrkj5V96eWCxcP_QkSI8s9uZuaAIXaLFXD-NyYLlMkLaYrdpEdpFGOZ5hNh0klbmFLct0UHb9eIAZMUck/s320/ruby+cover+feb+1921.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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...but she often felt cursed by it.<br />
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She wanted to be a serious actress, but no one would take such a "pretty girl" seriously. The <i>Washington Post </i>let her vent in a 1919 article appropriately titled "Beauty Often a Handicap":<br />
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<i>"The actress that has been blessed with a fair measure of good looks," says Miss De Remer, "labors under the handicap imposed by the casting-director who insists that she play only such parts as afford her a chance to look her prettiest...I want people to say of my work 'she is more willing...to play strong character parts than she is to be dolled up in silks and satins'...[p]eople pay for seats in a theatre to see acting, not to witness a display of gowns or pulchritude."</i><br />
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Yet even <u>they</u> responded the same way, effectively erasing the whole point of the piece:<br />
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<i>Personally we agreed with Miss de Remer's views...but did you ever see this little lady as a member of the "Midnight Frolic"?</i><br />
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Sigh.<br />
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I couldn't find anything further about Rubye, other than the same tired old fluff that exhausted her so much:<br />
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<i>The secret of remaining young is never to wear an unbecoming hat.</i><br />
["Some New Ideas About Dress", <i>Photoplay</i>, May 1922]<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZYPxdPPWYwECe6g6fDzbk5Ywa1wZlAfdol6TzDJfdtYzboE8bHUEsA_oH7GdJyO9yqxVN3DyhLstGp8Up3xX6n062sZXRSDYzSJhO9Ojq1mw7cnSTvC_epOewyWi5IsMivCrbdO9R2Ik/s1600/jun1921-rubye-ad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZYPxdPPWYwECe6g6fDzbk5Ywa1wZlAfdol6TzDJfdtYzboE8bHUEsA_oH7GdJyO9yqxVN3DyhLstGp8Up3xX6n062sZXRSDYzSJhO9Ojq1mw7cnSTvC_epOewyWi5IsMivCrbdO9R2Ik/s320/jun1921-rubye-ad.jpg" width="306" /></a></div>
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But there still was a spark in her, and she wasn't above letting it out:<br />
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<i>[I]f I lost whatever looks with which the Almighty has seen fit to bless me, I wouldn't have a job very long.</i><br />
["How I Keep in Condition", <i>Photoplay</i>, September 1921]<br />
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Rubye de Remer made a little over 20 films, her last being THE GORGEOUS HUSSY (1936) with Joan Crawford. She married twice, once in 1912 (divorced 1916) and again, this time to coal/iron magnate Benjamin Throop in 1924 (he died in 1935, though I can't find if their marriage ended before that). She passed away in 1984, aged 92.<br />
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Can anyone out there fill in the holes for me? I'm still poking around, trying to find something, anything. I'd feel this way about any actor/actress, but especially Rubye. She so much wanted to be remembered as more than just a pretty face.<br />
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<br />Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17519672156109642104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078055360046475963.post-25826632853520708762013-10-17T06:11:00.000-07:002013-10-17T06:11:39.922-07:00The Fleeting Aristocracy of Constance BinneyConstance Binney fairly leapt out of the pages of <u>Blum's A Pictorial History of the Silent Screen</u>, with the kind of eyes that "often fire first and with deadly aim" [<i>Film Fun</i>, Sept 1919]. In a volume filled with lovely faces, hers was different somehow -- her gaze held depth, sparkle. Who was the woman behind it?<br />
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Constance was born in New York City in 1896. She was sent to Paris for her education, returning to Connecticut to attend finishing school. It was at the latter that she began performing in student productions, both acting and dancing. By 1917 she was back in New York and appearing on Broadway in <i>Saturday to Monday</i>.<br />
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1918 saw her first appearance on the screen in SPORTING LIFE, along with her sister Faire. Both young ladies had a mildly successful (if short-lived) career, with Faire's list of credits lasting only two years longer than Constance's.<br />
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Coincidentally, both Binneys made films with John Barrymore, and both in 1919: Faire in HERE COMES THE BRIDE, a breezy comedy of the sort Jack excelled in at the time, and Constance in his first dramatic picture, THE TEST OF HONOR. (Both films are lost as of this entry.)<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">[image courtesy <a href="http://www.corbisimages.com/" target="_blank">Corbis</a>]</span></div>
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The fan magazines made much of Constance's background, calling it "Massachusetts aristocracy" and playing up her ancestry as a "direct descendant of one of the ten thousand families that came over on the Mayflower" [1]. As a result, the image they paint of her is composed, noble, almost patrician:<br />
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<i>There was none of the usual histrionic flutter in this twenty-year-old...[s]he is a lovely thing facially and physically...plus the poise of breeding...[and] the saving grace of a vast underlying gund of New England common-sense. </i>[1]<br />
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<i>She was very small, cool...distinctively, pleasantly crisp...upon an interesting verge of flapperism. That cool little something, poise, aplomb...prevents her from ever quite slipping over the edge. </i>[2]<br />
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Binney had good notices for THE TEST OF HONOR; Linda "Mrs DW" Griffith herself called her "a darling little person, with...youth, beauty, personality, and a simple, unaffected, direct style of acting" ["Comments and Criticisms of a Free-Lance", <i>Film Fun, </i>June 1919]. Famous Players-Lasky was impressed enough to sign her to their prestigious RealArt division.<br />
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Yet, even with this stellar beginning, her career slid to a halt by 1923. (Her sister Faire's would end by 1925.) She did a little stage work in London in the early 1940s, and was briefly married to British war hero Leonard Cheshire. But, unlike Faire, who did a little TV work in the 1950s, Constance slipped completely from the public eye by 1951. At one point, she returned to the New York area, settling in Queens. Constance Binney died on November 15, 1989. She was 93.<br />
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[1] Julian Johnson, "Plymouth Rock Chicken". <i>Photoplay</i>, September 1919<br />
[2] Kenneth Curly, "Constance: The Brute-Breaker". <i>Motion Picture</i>, May 1922<br />
All images courtesy the<a href="http://mediahistoryproject.org/fanmagazines/" target="_blank"> Media History Digital Library</a> unless otherwise noted.Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17519672156109642104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078055360046475963.post-64570042931057320512013-10-10T05:42:00.001-07:002013-10-10T05:42:20.761-07:00Ode to the Trade Paper Introduction of Lina Basquette"Little nine-year-old Lena Baskette"--<br />
a fetching beauty, dark of hair and eyes,<br />
a charming girl who loved to pirouette,<br />
a star pupil Pavlova would have prized.<br />
Your life would be a tempest, and your heart<br />
would burst and knit and never be fulfilled;<br />
despite all your hard work, one single role -<br />
<i>The Godless Girl</i> - would be your lasting art,<br />
forever known best by that one DeMille<br />
and off-screen storms that you could not control.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEgKKtkr7IJY7EwnoMlURPOu-nW-aYlxSYC1qL-GU_-peEpZoroV1U52w0vk-mSfwFZyIJG5tWYfEmIVrVb0psC7UaOWuOW7DR0dMb9HcxYQ5tAjdpn7AAYLN32cu_6Pqa39k3vWJO_co/s1600/lina.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEgKKtkr7IJY7EwnoMlURPOu-nW-aYlxSYC1qL-GU_-peEpZoroV1U52w0vk-mSfwFZyIJG5tWYfEmIVrVb0psC7UaOWuOW7DR0dMb9HcxYQ5tAjdpn7AAYLN32cu_6Pqa39k3vWJO_co/s320/lina.jpg" width="255" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0060012/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm" target="_blank">Lina Basquette</a><br />
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My inspiration: the <i>Motion Picture Studio Directory and Trade Annual</i> from Oct 21 1916.<br />
Click to enlarge.<br />
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<br />Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17519672156109642104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078055360046475963.post-81991123448754542022013-10-03T06:20:00.002-07:002013-10-03T06:26:14.307-07:00Adults Only! -- Maniac (1934)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh man, I wanted to write a review for this -- I really, really did -- but all I managed to get out was "what the hell did I just watch?" Well, that and "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Bad Movie Report has <a href="http://www.stomptokyo.com/badmoviereport/reviews/M/maniac34.html" target="_blank">a brilliant review here</a> if you want something more intelligent and cohesive. What follows will be notes I made (after wiping the tears out of my eyes).</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">THIS IS THE GREATEST BAD MOVIE I HAVE EVER SEEN.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The plot (as if it mattered), from IMDb:</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 17.77777862548828px;"><i>A former vaudevillian gifted at impersonation assists a mad scientist in reanimating corpses and soon goes mad himself.</i></span> (Why the hell is a vaudeville guy even working with a scientist?)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Memorable moments:</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">• Dr Mierschultz listening for a heartbeat on his victim. IN THE MORGUE.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">• More ham acting than a roomful of Barrymores!</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">•</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bizarre intertitles about mental illness that pop up at random times -- with happy music!</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">•</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">L</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">SD trip double exposures! </span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">•</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Suddenly, gratutitous nudity!</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">•</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Eating of cat eyeballs! "It is not unlike an OYSTER or a GRAPE!"</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">•</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Continuity? What's that? Even the cat has a bad stand-in.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">• T & A ending that was mercifully tacked on for the viewers. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
and my favorite line:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
"The cats eat the rats, the rats eat the cats, and I get the skins!"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
HOLY CRAP this movie is off the rails. It's made by the same folks who made <i>Reefer Madness</i>, so that should be no surprise. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
Best part of all? It's available on Youtube. GO WATCH IT.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/GObPW3BAmP8?rel=0" width="420"></iframe></span>Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17519672156109642104noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078055360046475963.post-72019886919889494142013-09-27T05:52:00.000-07:002013-09-27T05:52:09.678-07:00The Beautiful Eyes of Blanche Mehaffey<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Imagine
one of the most embarrassing things you’ve ever done. Go ahead, I’ll wait.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">All
set? Cheeks burning with shame? Okay.
Now imagine it being on television – your derpiest hour broadcast to
hundreds of thousands of people. You’d
be horrified! You’d be humiliated! You’d be…<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Blanche
Mehaffey.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">[<i>Photoplay</i>, November 1924]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Blanche
was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, but which year is anyone’s guess – 1906, 1907,
1908 have all been mentioned. She made
her way to <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state>,
where she was a dancer in the Ziegfeld Follies.
Florence Ziegfeld himself said she had the most beautiful eyes in the
world! She was </span><span style="font-size: 15px;">also</span><span style="font-size: 15px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">lovely enough to be featured
in the more risqué rooftop “Midnight Frolic”.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Her
screen debut was in a Hal Roach production, <i>Fully
Insured </i>(1923). She made somewhat of
a name for herself with in Roach shorts, supporting such stars as Snub Pollard
and Charley Chase. Blanche was on the
rise, and was about to get even more famous: she joined Lucille Ricksen,
Alberta Vaughn, and fellow July birthday girl Clara Bow as a WAMPAS Baby Star
of 1924! (That's her on the bottom right, next to Bow.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilJzF-PF9tgiM5ebxKMU-7WfEzyjuxGlhIoAGhX4DgDU3ojRbMEss8H6c1EXHBY9yfC4uIgXSRTtnIb-lDkpvYG9nePTra5KjKKp5grTdNNWxHhxgKxXgrj33xRZWZEsqdUITa5j9Kbsg/s1600/wampas-baby-stars-1924-immortal+ephemera.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilJzF-PF9tgiM5ebxKMU-7WfEzyjuxGlhIoAGhX4DgDU3ojRbMEss8H6c1EXHBY9yfC4uIgXSRTtnIb-lDkpvYG9nePTra5KjKKp5grTdNNWxHhxgKxXgrj33xRZWZEsqdUITa5j9Kbsg/s320/wampas-baby-stars-1924-immortal+ephemera.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">[image courtesy <a href="http://immortalephemera.com/wampas-baby-stars/" target="_blank">Immortal Ephemera</a>]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So
from here she went on to superstardom, becoming a household name into the
Roaring Twenties and beyond, right?
Right?!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sadly,
you’ve read enough of these profiles to know where this is headed: being a Baby Star turned out to be the
pinnacle of her career. She made a few more
silent pictures, the most memorable being Westerns with Hoot Gibson, and by the
1930s her output mostly consisted of incredibly low-budget films produced by
her husband, Ralph M Like. She also had
the lead in a 1931 serial (also low-budget) called MYSTERY TROOPER. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Mehaffey
changed her name to “Janet Morgan” in the mid-Thirties, in an attempt to reboot
her fading career, but to no avail; disillusioned by her body of work, she
retired from films by the end of the decade.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8rovkBHFDurWLZt7uC2PSAx1buegTBe00AEUTTwqPye_wukzxep1kP4zy38LY5AI5bbhxUGZ-_9WetjcCxcn_RlwwLPKZRyCjYymPlniOYcLTCT_cXTCMgcokKFAg4dOS_M-eW-OUmLg/s1600/rlease.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8rovkBHFDurWLZt7uC2PSAx1buegTBe00AEUTTwqPye_wukzxep1kP4zy38LY5AI5bbhxUGZ-_9WetjcCxcn_RlwwLPKZRyCjYymPlniOYcLTCT_cXTCMgcokKFAg4dOS_M-eW-OUmLg/s320/rlease.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">[image courtesy <a href="http://www.b-westerns.com/ladies42.htm" target="_blank">The Old Corral</a>]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Fast
forward to 1948.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Television was in its
infancy, and a great deal of early programming came from 1930s films – quite
the lucrative way for studios to recycle old pictures.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Blanche was startled to find MYSTERY TROOPER
on the tube one day, and sued to keep the rest of her less-than-stellar output
off the screen.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The suit was dismissed,
and she was forced to watch her former films become “golden turkeys”, laughable
trifles still featured at "bad" film festivals today.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Blanche
Mehaffey died on <st1:date day="31" month="3" w:st="on" year="1968">March 31,
1968</st1:date>, of natural causes. She
was only 59.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17519672156109642104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078055360046475963.post-82889454430547065582013-09-19T12:28:00.000-07:002013-09-19T12:28:48.332-07:00Coming back soon...but first, let's help FloHello Friends! I've been away far too long, and plan to remedy that very soon. In the meantime, check out the fundraising efforts to get a proper grave marker for our Thanhouser darling, Florence La Badie.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="300" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/70965199?byline=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="400"></iframe>
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<a href="http://silentstanzas.blogspot.com/2012/10/million-dollar-mystery-florence-la-badie.html" target="_blank">You might recall the piece I wrote on her</a>. This has caught fire in silent film circles, and even outside of them -- recently <a href="http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/09/17/film-star-forgotten-at-brooklyn-cemetery/" target="_blank">CBS New York aired a story</a> about it as well. <br />
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If you can, contribute! If you can't, spread the word!<br />
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<br />Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17519672156109642104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078055360046475963.post-49375572870859785532013-07-03T08:16:00.000-07:002013-07-03T08:16:34.304-07:00Happy Independence Day!Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzas is taking a week off to enjoy the holiday. Have a happy Fourth, folks -- and a safer one than poor Joanie!<div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfKP_TWtQFJR93yIQ14VNrUfrDSuZIdRD1Ligeq-SF_lJQogEZJhAicea0TKWD2-wD7Tlo67h5SNC_yvol6CLPomGhaEzLcOJTghLonBo9WORNDmCsquCtIBqMjKK9ZDrg_Ah98GFilzc/s637/4760713733_bc02a8f4fe_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfKP_TWtQFJR93yIQ14VNrUfrDSuZIdRD1Ligeq-SF_lJQogEZJhAicea0TKWD2-wD7Tlo67h5SNC_yvol6CLPomGhaEzLcOJTghLonBo9WORNDmCsquCtIBqMjKK9ZDrg_Ah98GFilzc/s400/4760713733_bc02a8f4fe_o.jpg" width="313" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Photo courtesy <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silent_screen_queen/" target="_blank">Amy Jeanne</a>)</span></div>
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Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17519672156109642104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078055360046475963.post-9099096332557500832013-06-27T12:56:00.000-07:002013-06-27T12:56:41.901-07:00Thom's Sawyer<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;">“Perhaps no picture player in the world is better known and
more admired than Miss Laura Sawyer”, proclaims the April 1911 <i>Motion Picture Story. </i>The very opposite is true about her
today – she’s one of the most obscure of silent film stars.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdE5_snH9k6BQIB2SxIqaV_hXkdcOpqAt32Zy7a-Hfhb6SWfbiRzc42a8TL-UNUh4Zi9M8rUe4w2BwPaUFa6oDchyT0n-PrCQf7X3FKeEEZMXx4qZZ_0lWebSwLj3yk2030nDNWfM70XU/s1152/laura+1911+mot+pic+story+april.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: black; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdE5_snH9k6BQIB2SxIqaV_hXkdcOpqAt32Zy7a-Hfhb6SWfbiRzc42a8TL-UNUh4Zi9M8rUe4w2BwPaUFa6oDchyT0n-PrCQf7X3FKeEEZMXx4qZZ_0lWebSwLj3yk2030nDNWfM70XU/s400/laura+1911+mot+pic+story+april.jpg" width="285" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><o:p> </o:p>There’s not a whole lot available on her early life; indeed,
all I could find was from Wikipedia, and even that was sorely lacking: her
birthdate (Feb 3, 1885), her parents (Alvah Hayden and Laurette Sawyer), and
that she was schooled at the <st1:placename w:st="on">Ursuline</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Academy</st1:placetype> in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">St
Louis</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Missouri</st1:state></st1:place>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;">She performed with the Otis Skinner theatrical troupe for
four years before landing at Edison Studios, where she would remain until 1913. Sawyer’s work there was highly regarded, and
she was said to have been the favorite actress of Thomas Edison himself.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><i>Miss Laura Sawyer,
leading lady in the <st1:place w:st="on">Edison</st1:place> company…commonly
referred to by her intimates as “Dolly Dimples”, is as charming a young woman
as she is a talented actress…”</i> [<i>Moving
Picture World</i>, April 26, 1913]</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><i> </i> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;">During her time at <st1:place w:st="on">Edison</st1:place>,
she headlined one of the first detective story serials:</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><i>Let it be understood
that these stories will be absolutely independent of each other, each telling
of an entirely separate case on which Kate Kirby, a girl detective, is detailed
to work…[t]hese “Kate Kirby’s Cases” will be particularly interesting because
of the mystery that will sorrund them. </i>[“Kate Kirby’s Cases”, <i>The Kinetogram </i>(<st1:place w:st="on">Edison</st1:place>’s
own trade paper), July 15, 1913]</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip2jCd3lE73ifQZLXfOeiJNlJdrJ2Q1KXRkbvxIxLVcqkF_aDaeCHMdmScP4vvU2-ZwAA7z-1hE-EDi5eOH_Z947p9VK0NoCK4r_jatppyyIy4ygl9eM9oT4P296q8I8OFzojEon8nxHM/s381/Laura_Sawyer_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: black; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip2jCd3lE73ifQZLXfOeiJNlJdrJ2Q1KXRkbvxIxLVcqkF_aDaeCHMdmScP4vvU2-ZwAA7z-1hE-EDi5eOH_Z947p9VK0NoCK4r_jatppyyIy4ygl9eM9oT4P296q8I8OFzojEon8nxHM/s400/Laura_Sawyer_1.jpg" width="313" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;">The Kate Kirby serials proved quite popular (matching the
success of <st1:place w:st="on">Edison</st1:place>’s own “What Happened to
Mary?” with Mary Fuller) and got good reviews; <i>Moving Picture World </i>called the first installment, THE DIAMOND
CROWN, “very commendable…as a one reel detective story this is unusually
good”. Future installments were just as
well-received: “very good…the best regular release of the last two weeks” and
“well-acted”.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;">Sawyer, too, was lauded for her performance…</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><i>[Sawyer’s]
performances are invariably forceful and she shows remarkable powers of repression
in scenes which less capable players would spoil by overacting. </i>[“<st1:place w:st="on">Edison</st1:place>
Studio Notes”, <i>Moving Picture World</i>,
August 16, 1913]</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;">…as well as other things:</span></span></div>
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<i style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;">“[A] girl with two
noticeable dimples, dark ‘soulful’ eyes, a mass of chestnut hair and a debonair
manner that will overlook formalities and put you at your ease”…[A]smile filled
with California sunshine – a smile that radiated kindness, happiness, the joy
of living and perfect health, was one of the chief attributes of his leading
lady.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;">[“Laura Sawyer, of the Edison Company – Chats with the
Players”, <i>Motion Picture Story</i>,
August 1913] (Anybody else think the
reporter had a teensy crush on her? – JR)</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAdc4qdEyzcg9bMRKHoOYFhGPx819grgFykfzHqyeu2RjZs4XPe_1VXqA5ThiPfbBJIG4duYCQHvH5OFbbwhdCwblrj4bezbnyt-VwqhPkSr_4MWip16nwu9_kuil8jk89J7wXEHPBO1A/s1136/laura+mot+pic+story+march+1912.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: black; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAdc4qdEyzcg9bMRKHoOYFhGPx819grgFykfzHqyeu2RjZs4XPe_1VXqA5ThiPfbBJIG4duYCQHvH5OFbbwhdCwblrj4bezbnyt-VwqhPkSr_4MWip16nwu9_kuil8jk89J7wXEHPBO1A/s400/laura+mot+pic+story+march+1912.jpg" width="260" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><o:p> </o:p>At any rate, by the end of August 1913, Sawyer had ended her
tenure at <st1:place w:st="on">Edison</st1:place> and moved to Famous Players,
bringing Kate Kirby along with her. The
“girl detective” lasted three more installments; by 1915, after a couple of
additional films, Laura Sawyer’s career was over. Whether the choice was hers or the studios’,
I cannot say. As for her personal life,
Wikipedia lists her as having married, but I have no idea if this had any say
in her leaving movies or not. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;">The last word on Laura comes from the ubiquitous “where are
they now” section:</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><i>The author of that
successful photoplay, “The Valentine Girl”, in which Marguerite Clark played
the delightful lead, is none other than our old friend Laura Sawyer (<st1:place w:st="on">Edison</st1:place>), who, after leaving the silent drama, has
returned as a successful scenario-writer. </i>[Lester Sweyd, “What They Are
Doing Now”, <i>Motion Picture</i>, February
1918]</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;">Her scenario-writing seems to have been limited to that one
picture...after that, she completely vanished from the public eye. Laura Sawyer died on September 7, 1970, at age 85.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2VYPKAsWYAMHfUQ46kdQcGqFvsAXlXfgaLEBBSne6V6yRzLmrq69m6yf2mWU-q5g7HWXo1GWZHKyZgNLDtG329mHWKyuoj_9fOQM_B6UDUOp0sVZoK0uBQ5GPO8T1ohX0X1v1sWHvZuY/s650/laura+1911.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: black; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2VYPKAsWYAMHfUQ46kdQcGqFvsAXlXfgaLEBBSne6V6yRzLmrq69m6yf2mWU-q5g7HWXo1GWZHKyZgNLDtG329mHWKyuoj_9fOQM_B6UDUOp0sVZoK0uBQ5GPO8T1ohX0X1v1sWHvZuY/s320/laura+1911.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: x-small;">[photo courtesy the <a href="http://cdm15046.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15046coll32" target="_blank">Jonathan Silent Film Collection</a>]</span></div>
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Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17519672156109642104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078055360046475963.post-20347031362450977232013-06-20T07:02:00.000-07:002013-06-20T07:02:03.237-07:00Five Facts About: Roy D'Arcy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">[image courtesy <a href="http://www.ebay.com/itm/ROY-DARCY-Original-Vintage-Postcard-aprox-1939-/190434449124" target="_blank">eBay</a>]</span></div>
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1. He was quite the Renaissance man: born Roy Giusti in San Francisco, he was educated abroad, studied art in Paris, worked odd jobs in South America, traveled Germany and Switzerland with a “gypsy” band, then hit vaudeville and toured Europe and Asia. He eventually returned to the US, where Erich von Stroheim took one look at him on stage and chose him for Prince Mirko in <i>The Merry Widow</i> (thus beginning his reign as a villain of the silent screen).<br />
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2. Was known for affecting a rather creepy rictus grin; <i>Motion Picture </i>described him as “leering”, the <i>Milwaukee Sentinel</i> labeled him “the erstwhile smiling heavy of the silver sheet”, and Eve Golden called it “death’s head grinning” in <u><a href="http://www.amazon.com/John-Gilbert-Silent-Screen-Classics/dp/0813141621" target="_blank">John Gilbert: The Last of the Silent Film Stars</a></u>. My favorite is Louella Parsons, in a 1927 article entitled “Picture Stars Must Abandon Individuality”:</div>
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<i>I have often wondered if Roy D’Arcy did not have his grin and forefinger how he could act. They are props for him in every screen drama. Mr D’Arcy made his success in The Merry Widow by affecting a leer…</i></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">[image courtesy <a href="http://allposters.co.uk/" target="_blank">Allposters</a>]</span></div>
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3. After he and his wife divorced, he was romantically linked to Lita Grey Chaplin for a time:</div>
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<i>Lita and Roy D’Arcy, the dental screen villain [there it is again! – JR] admit to a serious interest in each other...[o]ne report says they will co-star on a vaudeville tour this fall at a large joint salary, another that they will marry and go for a tour to the Orient</i>. [“Gossip of All the Studios”, <i>Photoplay</i>, June 1928]</div>
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<i>Lita Grey Chaplin and her stage-door Johnny, Mr Roy D’Arcy…Roy is waiting for one of those leisurely California divorce decrees, to ask Lita to become the second Mrs D’Arcy</i>. [“Gossip of All the Studios”, <i>Photoplay</i>, January 1929]</div>
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It all appears to have been for naught, however:</div>
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<i>Roy D’Arcy has remarried his former wife, Laura…[a]nd all along we, and lots of other people, were believing that he would soon be the husband of Lita Grey Chaplin</i>. [“Hollywood High Lights”, <i>Picture Play</i>, December 1929] (Sadly, the marriage would again be over less than six months later.)</div>
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4. He possessed a lovely singing voice – he headlined as lead tenor in numerous theatre troupe productions, as well as in the stage show <i>Oh Boy!</i> He later created a vaudeville show called<i> The Greatest Array of Talent Ever Assembled on Any Bill in This Country</i>, but returned to his monologist roots instead of singing.</div>
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5. Although he did make some talkies – the most notable being the serials <i>The Shadow of the Eagle</i> (1932) and<i> The Whispering Shadow</i> (1933) for Mascot – his overwrought acting style was too old-fashioned for 30s audiences, and after a small part in 1939’s <i>The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle</i>, he retired from the screen. At age 45, he reinvented himself again, starting a profitable real estate business. Roy D’Arcy died in 1969, at the age of 75.</div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: x-small;">[image courtesy <span class="irc_ho" style="cursor: pointer; font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16px; margin-right: -2px; padding-right: 2px; text-decoration: none;"><a class="irc_hol irc_itl" data-ved="0CAQQjB0" href="http://www.celbcelb.com/R/page-103/" style="cursor: pointer; font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16px; text-decoration: none;">www.celbcelb.com</a>]</span></span></div>
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Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17519672156109642104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078055360046475963.post-81199281040212197572013-06-13T06:05:00.000-07:002013-06-13T06:06:47.478-07:00Dareos, the (Somewhat) Soothsayer of Hollywood<div class="MsoNormal">
If you were an actor in the 1920s, or just hung around with them, chances are that someone would eventually drag you along to visit a fortune teller or psychic. Early Hollywood was a superstitious lot, and there were plenty of people willing to exploit it:</div>
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<i>There are all kinds of soothsayers and prophets. There are sincere ones, no doubt – and equally doubtlessly, ruthless charlatans…[the] good people of movieland, in no small degree, believe what the hocus-pocus peddlers tell them! </i> [1]<br />
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The most famous of the “hocus-pocus peddlers” was Dareos, about whom there is maddeningly little on the internet. <i>Photoplay </i>investigates:</div>
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<i>This Dareos’ full name, by the way, is George Dareos. He has a rambling suite of rooms in a two-story building, over a branch bank in Ocean Park – a beach town near Hollywood. He is listed in the phone book as “Dareos, George, psychoanalyst”, but he tells you frankly that he just senses things about his clients…</i></div>
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<i>“[I] lived for a long time in the East and in Europe. My people thought I was going to be a lawyer, but I didn’t want to. It was in 1916 that I first took up this psychic work…[I] went into a fortune-teller’s tent, and…I had told his fortune instead of him telling me mine.”</i> [2]</div>
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The only other background I could find is by Irving Shulman, in his book <u>Jackie: The Exploitation of a First Lady</u> (and you know there must be a dearth of info if I’m using Shulman):</div>
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<i>[M]any of these stellar people were clients of George Dareos, formerly butler to a Hollywood star addicted to frequent consultation with a Pasadena medium. After Dareos compared his earnings as a manservant with the medium’s takings, he decided to set himself up as a seer.</i></div>
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Which of these stories are true? Who knows? At any rate, Dareos’ prophetic skill was legend in and around Tinseltown; he advised Pola Negri, Charles Chaplin, Mae Murray, Mabel Normand, and a multitude of the cinema elite.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGXo6CLBA41RSfpPSgSvpcmaO80GNIbgP7DupUYiB4eetBQjGWH8V1VKcHoN2EiPKt2UWQD3raW4hbpI6ZOCPnU0jkX0iLSZIWltB8OOEvy0vwQYTSl33rF38aNRfBOZsD099MtivO33c/s1600/rudolph+valentino+profile+in+polka+dot+bowtie+1922.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGXo6CLBA41RSfpPSgSvpcmaO80GNIbgP7DupUYiB4eetBQjGWH8V1VKcHoN2EiPKt2UWQD3raW4hbpI6ZOCPnU0jkX0iLSZIWltB8OOEvy0vwQYTSl33rF38aNRfBOZsD099MtivO33c/s320/rudolph+valentino+profile+in+polka+dot+bowtie+1922.jpg" width="241" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">[photo courtesy <a href="http://vintage-spirit.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://vintage-spirit.blogspot.com/</a>]</span></div>
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One of his more infamous clients was Valentino, as noted in <u>Dark Lover: The Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino</u> by Emily W Leider:</div>
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<i>[H]e sought advice from a crystal-ball-gazing Santa Monica seer, Dareos, who told a reporter that Valentino had come to him in a confused state, confessing his undying love for Mrs Valentino [Natacha Rambova] and begging for a glimpse into the future. Dareos foretold that the separated couple would never be reconciled… “I told him he was born to have many romances and that he should never get married.”</i></div>
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We’ve established his reputation, but the question remains: how was his accuracy? </div>
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Let’s test it ourselves! In the aforementioned <i>Photoplay </i>article, Dareos predicts the future for some big names.</div>
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<b>Tom Mix:</b></div>
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<i>“Tom Mix should be careful. I predict that Tom Mix will be ruined if he’s not careful. If he doesn’t watch out, some day a bolt will strike him like lightning out of the blue!”</i> [3]<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">[photo courtesy <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Mix" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>]</span></div>
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Well, Mix wasn’t exactly ruined, but something did strike him – the aluminum suitcase he was traveling with, forever to be known as the “Suitcase of Death”:</div>
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<i>On the day he died, Mix was driving north from Tucson in his beloved bright-yellow Cord Phaeton sports car. He was driving so fast that he didn’t notice – or failed to heed – signs warning that one of the bridges was out on the road ahead. The Phaeton swung into a gully and Mix was smacked in the back of the head by one of the heavy aluminum suitcases he was carrying in the convertible’s back seat. The impact broke the actor’s neck and he died almost instantly. </i> [<a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/silent-film-star-tom-mix-dies-in-arizona-car-wreck-brained-by-suitcase-of-death">"On This Day in History" Oct 12 1940 -- History.com</a>]</div>
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<b>Constance Talmadge:</b></div>
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<i>“Constance Talmadge – I told her she has many wonderful things yet to come – I predict a brilliant marriage for her, one that will last.”</i> [4]<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">[photo courtesy <a href="http://thefabulousbirthdayblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">The Fabulous Birthday Blog</a>]</span></div>
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Notoriously unlucky in love, Dutch married four times, the last of which finally did last (for 25 years). She had no children.</div>
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<b>Joan Crawford:</b></div>
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<i>“There’s talk that she and young Fairbanks will marry, but I don’t see that.”</i> [5]</div>
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Uh...<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">[photo courtesy <a href="http://bridalbox.org/joan-crawfords-weddings/joan-crawford-and-douglas-fairbanks-jr-on-their-wedding-day/" target="_blank">bridalbox.org</a>]</span></div>
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Finally, <b>Richard Dix</b>:</div>
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<i>A year ago, Dareos told Dix that within five years the star would marry one of the most important society women in America…[c]heck that on your calendar for 1932, fans!</i> [6]<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">[photo courtesy <a href="http://www.silentsaregolden.com/photos/richarddixphoto.html" target="_blank">Silents Are Golden</a>]</span></div>
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Dix married San Francisco socialite Winifred Coe in October 1931. The marriage produced a daughter, but was over by July 1933.</div>
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So our friend Dareos was about as intuitive as a Magic 8 Ball. Didn't seem to hurt him though; he remained one of the most visible and oft-consulted psychics -- the Sidney Sheldon of his time -- well through the silent era and beyond:</div>
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<i>Meet Rex Larbow Bell, the son and heir of Clara Bow…the unusual middle name is the suggestion of George Dareos, local astrologer, who is widely consulted by film folk, and who is a close friend of Clara and Rex [Bell]. According to Dareos, Larbow is an Indian name…</i>[Harrison Carroll, “Behind the Scenes in Hollywood”, <i>Rochester Evening Journal</i>, Jan 3 1935]</div>
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<i>Franklin D Roosevelt’s election fo the much debated “third term” is a certainty, in the opinion of George Dareos, noted Hollywood astrologer for many of moviedom’s noted…he declares he is a theosophist, the reincarnation of a great sociologist from the far distant past…[l]ooking ahead 50 years, Dareos forecasts a change of site for the Vatican from Rome to some place in Spain.</i> [“Hollywood Astrologist Sees Roosevelt Triumph”, <i>Valley Star-Monitor-Herald</i> (Texas), Oct 20 1940]</div>
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<i>Some years ago, George Dareos, world-famous psychic, told us he predicted that Hayley Mills would marry a man old enough to be her father…[a]ccording to present Hollywood whispers, George Dareos’ predictions appear to be coming true. She has been guarding a romantic secret, one that involves a man of 57.</i> (Mills was 22 at the time of the article). [<i>TV and Movie Screen Magazine</i>, June 1967]</div>
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The last mention of Dareos I could find was a prediction he made about Elvis Presley in 1969 (excerpted in <u>Private Elvis</u> by May Mann):</div>
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<i>Elvis can live to be over 70 years of age if he stays away from private planes…Elvis, after his fortieth birthday…will stand a symbol of honesty and good character…[h]e will one day head a magnificent producing company, and hire other stars to appear in pictures he will produce (besides the ones he will star in), he will make a great success…</i></div>
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After that, the trail goes cold. Aside from a Diane Arbus photograph (which I could not find in good enough resolution to reproduce here), nothing. Very strange for a man who seemed such a ubiquitous part of Hollywood’s gold-plated façade. It’s as if he simply vanished. (I wonder if he foresaw it?)<br />
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[1--6] Harry Lang, "Exposing the Occult: Hocus-Pocus in Hollywood", <i>Photoplay</i>, December 1928</div>
Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17519672156109642104noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078055360046475963.post-61101511106300414862013-06-06T06:16:00.000-07:002013-06-06T06:19:48.189-07:00Jobyna Ralston and the Fickle Finger of Fame<div class="MsoNormal">
One thing that’s both wonderful and painful about having so
many issues of <i>Photoplay</i> at one’s
fingertips is tracing the fleeting career arc of a star.
We see the excitement of his/her discovery, the popular period when
every other article seems to be about him/her…then, the mentions get fewer and
further between, until finally his/her name is all but forgotten by the
once-adoring public. </div>
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(All images are courtesy my favorite place on the internet, the <a href="http://mediahistoryproject.org/fanmagazines/">Media History Digital Library</a>.)</div>
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Jobyna Ralston was born on November 21, 1899. She first appeared on stage at age nine; by 1915 she was attending acting school, and eventually made her Broadway debut in <i>Two Little Girls in Blue </i>at age 21. <a href="http://silentstanzas.blogspot.com/search?q=max+linder">Max Linder</a> was in the audience and insisted she come to Hollywood -- she performed in many of his films, as well as the Marx Brothers' lost <i>Humor Risk </i>and Hal Roach shorts. First mention of her I could find was in 1922, in a
blurb about Mildred Davis retiring as Harold Lloyd’s leading lady:</div>
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<i>Just who is to follow Mildred…hasn’t been decided…[A] little extra girl
named Jobyna – yes, truly – is being most seriously considered. Well, whoever follows Bebe Daniels and
Mildred Davis, will be lucky, it would appear. </i>[“Plays and Players”, <i>Photoplay</i>, September 1922]<o:p></o:p></div>
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With that, suddenly, in 1923, she was noticed: </div>
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[<i>Photoplay,
</i>July 1923]<o:p></o:p></div>
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The prestige of being named a WAMPAS star, along with well-received
performances in <i>Why Worry? </i>and <i>Girl Shy </i>put her on the map. She was profiled by Adela Rogers St Johns:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>But oh, sang I, to be
eighteen and just fresh from <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Tennessee</st1:place></st1:state>,
and </i>pretty<i>. Jobyna is so Southern...[t]rying to alter her
speech would be just about as foolish as extracting the perfume from a
rose. I don’t know whether she’s got a
brain in her head, but brains are just excess baggage to girls like Jobyna. </i>[I
guess that’s supposed to be positive?
Yeesh. –JR]<i> I don’t know what to call it – but whatever it is, Jobyna’s got
it. </i>[“Betty & Jobyna”, <i>Photoplay, </i>November 1923]<o:p></o:p></div>
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She posed for fluff [a bob clause? Really?!]:<o:p></o:p></div>
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[“News and Gossip East and West”, <i>Photoplay</i>, July 1924]<o:p></o:p></div>
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She was officially presented to the public:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>A man with an eye like
[Harold Lloyd]’s doesn’t need any glass in his horn rims. I have never seen a more sensitive face. Expressions flutter over it, one after
another, like ripples in a pond. A
whimsical, engaging bit of fluff that’s liable to be wafted far. </i>[Herbert Howe, “The Discovery of Jobyna
Ralston”, <i>Photoplay</i>, August 1924]<o:p></o:p></div>
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And the portraits! Hardly a month went by without one:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikQDapuI2hrvYPHAL-Wd9BjLR8UVWKKitSaKDXfGSPzlcUFw09pxyl192BSVjO39f13pLj1_8Flx4D5VKqiPNB3kSDXYUyIaMFdb2HIYJHltnyF9qPaVa5MzuctghFv1T2M2QjFs2YxmQ/s1600/pp+feb+1924.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikQDapuI2hrvYPHAL-Wd9BjLR8UVWKKitSaKDXfGSPzlcUFw09pxyl192BSVjO39f13pLj1_8Flx4D5VKqiPNB3kSDXYUyIaMFdb2HIYJHltnyF9qPaVa5MzuctghFv1T2M2QjFs2YxmQ/s400/pp+feb+1924.jpg" width="278" /></a></div>
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[<i>Photoplay, </i>February 1924]</div>
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[<i>Photoplay, </i>August 1925]</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFuzsC4_bbfAOYKM0VFjMXp82iYwnSTO_8xmx2HYoygIIg1hpiYFWARVm_4_-f3J-klHr3pIS26JuJB7UinG2VbbtYbF1a98p_wZCdkluFXHwzl6RneSE6iEGwQf6z-Ef0NnRXluDAKzY/s1600/pp+april+1926.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFuzsC4_bbfAOYKM0VFjMXp82iYwnSTO_8xmx2HYoygIIg1hpiYFWARVm_4_-f3J-klHr3pIS26JuJB7UinG2VbbtYbF1a98p_wZCdkluFXHwzl6RneSE6iEGwQf6z-Ef0NnRXluDAKzY/s400/pp+april+1926.jpg" width="282" /></a></div>
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[<i>Photoplay, </i>April 1926]</div>
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But then…one issue went by without Jobyna.<o:p></o:p></div>
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She was still working, both with Lloyd (she appeared in six of his pictures) and in other films, including the first Academy Award winning Best Picture, <i>Wings, </i>yet she didn't seem to garner attention.
More issues went by with nary a word about her.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Her marriage to Richard Arlen, whom she met on the set of <i>Wings</i>, did gain a notice:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">[</span><i style="text-align: start;">Photoplay</i><span style="text-align: start;">, July 1927]</span></div>
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Nothing else until four years later, when her prowess at
dinner parties is discussed:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>When Jobyna Ralston
married Richard Arlen, she gave up a promising screen career to settle down and
become merely “Dick Arlen’s wife”. </i>[OUCH.
– JR] <i>Since then, Joby has turned her talents into housewifely channels…</i>[Carolyn
Van Wyck, “Jobyna and Dick Give a Party for Six”, <i>Photoplay, </i>May 1931]<i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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She made three movies after sound came in, but talkies exposed one problem that even her sweet <st1:state w:st="on">Tennessee</st1:state> drawl couldn't
fix: a lisp. Due to this and her first child on the way, she retired permanently from the screen.<o:p></o:p></div>
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[<i>Photoplay, </i>August
1933]</div>
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Movies are mercurial by nature. It’s
almost unfathomable to process how much films changed from the 20s to the
30s. It’s no wonder, then, that just ten short years after her discovery,
Jobyna is part of a “where are they now” nostalgia article:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>It’s easy to account
for many former big stars who have found the answer in Hollywood marriages and
screen retirement…Jobyna Ralston is satisfied with being just Mrs Richard
Arlen. </i>[Kirtley Baskette, “They, Too, Were Stars”, <i>Photoplay, </i>March 1934]<o:p></o:p></div>
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Sadly, the satisfaction didn't last forever; she and Arlen
were divorced in 1945. In later years, her health declined dramatically, and she suffered from rheumatism and a series of strokes. </div>
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Jobyna Ralston succumbed to pneumonia on <st1:date day="22" month="1" w:st="on" year="1967">January 22, 1967. She was only</st1:date> 67.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17519672156109642104noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078055360046475963.post-32309245541039142762013-05-31T06:30:00.000-07:002013-05-31T06:30:32.292-07:00The Summer Movies for '13<div>
Got absorbed in a project and didn't have time to write a proper blog entry this week (sorry!) so in exchange, I offer you the movies that exhibitors couldn't wait to get in their theatres -- from exactly 100 years ago today. From the May 31, 1913 issue of <i>Moving Picture World </i>[all courtesy the <a href="http://mediahistoryproject.org/earlycinema/">MHDB</a>]:</div>
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(How can you go wrong with that first title?)</div>
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(I kind of want to see THE ACCUSING HAND. </div>
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"Driven to complete confession without one single word of accusation"!)</div>
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(A HUSBAND'S TRICK stars <a href="http://silentstanzas.blogspot.com/2012/04/miss-tomboy.html">Lillian Walker</a> as a woman who realizes </div>
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the husband-neglecting error of her suffragette ways. Yay?)</div>
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("Professor Nutt, the vegetarian, goes to the house of an old friend for dinner."<br />Hey, it ain't WORLD WAR Z, but it'll do.)</div>
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Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17519672156109642104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078055360046475963.post-46295060330842107302013-05-24T06:42:00.000-07:002013-05-24T06:42:10.525-07:00Remembering<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMZdPzppS5zmMkPWVVwc5VvsZlgI5o2Whg-K0PNXRP90v1UfN4fC1T45as2DEcWddhv6knJC2hm6Fy0nkrfX-ScfvtS9HhDAPU-7mH3181D0VwiGgo4no2qUVPiW5YdSwMXILA2OPaWCA/s1600/j+k.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMZdPzppS5zmMkPWVVwc5VvsZlgI5o2Whg-K0PNXRP90v1UfN4fC1T45as2DEcWddhv6knJC2hm6Fy0nkrfX-ScfvtS9HhDAPU-7mH3181D0VwiGgo4no2qUVPiW5YdSwMXILA2OPaWCA/s400/j+k.PNG" width="373" /></a></div>
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John Gilbert and Karl Dane in "The Big Parade" (1925)</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">[image courtesy <a href="http://blog.eastmanhouse.org/">The Eastman House</a>]</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIjmMB42qudrSIXnysTYLqcPbFvrc3ny8YhBDKV_j41dVwc8WWfBZw7wl3X6aAoPvfWNwYuWsK-LrlJLv8NX9iTGopbbrBtLmoWwJ40m_joHi2uNTSYMOWSLEseDDiFbmcEbE1Ffb8FoQ/s1600/wings2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIjmMB42qudrSIXnysTYLqcPbFvrc3ny8YhBDKV_j41dVwc8WWfBZw7wl3X6aAoPvfWNwYuWsK-LrlJLv8NX9iTGopbbrBtLmoWwJ40m_joHi2uNTSYMOWSLEseDDiFbmcEbE1Ffb8FoQ/s400/wings2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Richard Arlen and Buddy Rogers in "Wings" (1927)</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">[image courtesy <a href="http://feminema.wordpress.com/2010/06/28/what-surprises-about-wings-1927/">Feminema</a>]</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5rifauTg28Zja_gflY7uApSCSrIqIp1eUUx21CKP1rD3SirIjzVFv9jMldcmfWe0GKXVb3sbN6amTQ9GS4JHPqiG9p4TNQEr9WltbeVHkYOZbhyphenhyphenS9d8ZLgJmbkscoI01hbmXZmAhbQ4Q/s1600/The+War+Film+Speaks,+Motion+Pic+Mag+Nov+1914.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5rifauTg28Zja_gflY7uApSCSrIqIp1eUUx21CKP1rD3SirIjzVFv9jMldcmfWe0GKXVb3sbN6amTQ9GS4JHPqiG9p4TNQEr9WltbeVHkYOZbhyphenhyphenS9d8ZLgJmbkscoI01hbmXZmAhbQ4Q/s320/The+War+Film+Speaks,+Motion+Pic+Mag+Nov+1914.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
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"The War Film Speaks", <i>Motion Picture</i>, November 1914</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">[courtesy the <a href="http://mediahistoryproject.org/">MHDL</a>]</span></div>
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I show you long lines of marching men</div>
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As in war's grim armor they go their way</div>
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To the battlefield, the fort and the fen,</div>
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And you clap your hands and you shout hurrah!</div>
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But pause for a moment, my friends out there,</div>
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Where safe you sit as my swift feet leap,</div>
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And think of the children that starve and stare</div>
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And the waiting women that work and weep.</div>
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Ah, know you already that war's wild hate</div>
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Has taken its toll of these marching lines,</div>
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That many a face with a smile elate</div>
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Lies ghastly now 'neath the border pines?</div>
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Yes, this laughing lad and that gaunt grandsire,</div>
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Who please your eye with their trim display,</div>
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May now be fighting 'mid hell's fierce fire,</div>
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Or breathing their last in the mad affray.</div>
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O mothers that look on your sons with pride,</div>
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O daughters that gaze on your fathers dear,</div>
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O maids that sit by a fond lover's side,</div>
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O wives that hover your husbands near,</div>
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Resolve in your hearts this horror must go</div>
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That brings to the world such awful dole,</div>
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This cheat called war with its pitiless woe</div>
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That wrings to the depths each human soul.</div>
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--Oscar H. Roesner</div>
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Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17519672156109642104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078055360046475963.post-69906556518211212622013-05-17T06:00:00.001-07:002013-05-17T06:22:26.322-07:00Five Facts About: Wanda Hawley<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwXED6A9hpZytxr3WX8yDUc4WoRdG0nfshHycg47LuiSKWlBcODOiyo5j5lz9IvUMZP3aWICeOz3mu9mHVQ1kCTox9eu5gClhEXF4Je52_dGE3K5FW6NE4fKWFQuz4EUGGY0p79AGi0Rw/s1600/PP+may+1920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigJ62VJEHEcLyhWGmbWojsYwx-9ThyjmtZcsDcAcBYysx2jRmQr44fllXE3xh6YKaKYtjKzYk7Kn7QomK8mzPVhbpNgHHa1YcPjSfAcbe_mXLHCtrWR73duSWjeSyGA9y-_TWOkD0jfuA/s1600/9w9747xcohd074cw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigJ62VJEHEcLyhWGmbWojsYwx-9ThyjmtZcsDcAcBYysx2jRmQr44fllXE3xh6YKaKYtjKzYk7Kn7QomK8mzPVhbpNgHHa1YcPjSfAcbe_mXLHCtrWR73duSWjeSyGA9y-_TWOkD0jfuA/s400/9w9747xcohd074cw.jpg" width="271" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">[</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Photo courtesy <a href="http://www.fanpix.net/picture-gallery/wanda-hawley-picture-15249966.htm">Fanpix.net</a></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">]</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: inherit;">1. Most of the fan magazines list her maiden name as Pettit, but her birth name was actually Selma Wanda Pittach. When entering movies in 1917, she took the name Pettit to accent her petite stature (she was only 5'3"). The moniker didn't last long, and she instead used her married name (she and Allen Burton Hawley would divorce in 1922):</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: inherit;"><i>Wanda Pettit is the latter no more. That is, she has assumed her honest-to-goodness name which is Wanda Hawley...Allan Dwan, the director, didn't like the Pettit part -- said it wasn't euphonious, or something, so Wanda had it deleted without a murmur. </i>["Plays and Players",<i> Photoplay, </i>June 1918]</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">Mr and Mrs Hawley. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: x-small;">[<i>Photoplay</i>, January 1920, courtesy the <a href="http://mediahistoryproject.org/fanmagazines/">MHDL</a>]</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: inherit;">2. In addition to enjoying swimming and gold, Wanda was vocally trained and toured for awhile across the country singing opera. She was also an accomplished pianist:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>She was to be a grand opera prima donna...and her mother had her put through a strict course of training vocally, as well as at the piano. The result is that she can sit down now and tick off a few Rachmaninoff preludes and Bach fugues without winking an eye. </i>["Victuals and Voice", <i>Photoplay</i>, January 1920]</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCImVbQy_akdcHXmfkIEV3dWMm4DhidoSCg61SkOn_rDI7io0nbX_DRHf8QCqAHU5nR-6j6wDyHsP09vg5bOQrlBWUgrDYWzwh2OBOQndsNmDZUmjfW1VIyVkTk5ixSgBX4eanvmeoPMM/s1600/photoplay+jan+1920-pic.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCImVbQy_akdcHXmfkIEV3dWMm4DhidoSCg61SkOn_rDI7io0nbX_DRHf8QCqAHU5nR-6j6wDyHsP09vg5bOQrlBWUgrDYWzwh2OBOQndsNmDZUmjfW1VIyVkTk5ixSgBX4eanvmeoPMM/s400/photoplay+jan+1920-pic.JPG" width="251" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">[<i>Photoplay</i>, January 1920, courtesy the <a href="http://mediahistoryproject.org/fanmagazines/">MHDL</a>]</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: inherit;">3. She is said to have appeared in the 1925 version of <i>The Wizard of Oz</i>, though her role is uncredited and, as of yet, unverified. This is a most unusual version of the story, directed by Larry Semon:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">4. At the height of her career, she was receiving the same amount of fan mail as Gloria Swanson, and starred with matinee idols like Rudolph Valentino and Wallace Reid.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_IH03SMCVZ06G67uoXORJtUK9GuG9KIU-LIJM7VYjlE0m09MS5J9WKt-fKrgKGd5LQZBCOcyqRdbpOAtW2H-eP2XJ3mOCK6vZV72O10Yv1wlZCg3mn3Kbhq2x0z-2My1zjG56v3aMeCE/s1600/rajah.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_IH03SMCVZ06G67uoXORJtUK9GuG9KIU-LIJM7VYjlE0m09MS5J9WKt-fKrgKGd5LQZBCOcyqRdbpOAtW2H-eP2XJ3mOCK6vZV72O10Yv1wlZCg3mn3Kbhq2x0z-2My1zjG56v3aMeCE/s400/rajah.jpg" width="311" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: inherit;">Wanda and Rudy in <i>The Young Rajah </i>(1922). </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">[Photo courtesy <a href="http://theloudestvoice.tumblr.com/">The Loudest Voice</a>.]</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: inherit;">5. Though well-regarded, her career faltered after sound came in (her IMDb lists only three credits, ending in 1932), and she is rumored to have become a call girl in San Francisco. She died in 1963.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: inherit;">Interested? Good! For more about Wanda:</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0370351/bio"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: inherit;">Wanda Hawley -- IMDb</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: inherit;">An interesting essay written by her great-niece: <a href="http://housearrestgirl.com/?tag=wanda-hawley">Sixth Street - House Arrest Girl</a></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/wanda-hawley-1"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: inherit;">Wanda Hawley -- Answers.com</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: inherit;">She is also included in <span style="line-height: 19.1875px;"><u><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Curves-atop-Hollywood-Heels/dp/1593936052">Dangerous Curves atop Hollywood Heels: The Lives, Careers, and Misfortunes of 14 Hard-Luck Girls of the Silent Screen</a></u> by Michael Ankerich (another on my to-read list!)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">[</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Photo courtesy <a href="http://www.fanpix.net/picture-gallery/wanda-hawley-picture-15249966.htm">Fanpix.net</a></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">]</span></span></div>
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<br />Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17519672156109642104noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078055360046475963.post-234720539825802972013-05-09T07:34:00.000-07:002013-05-09T07:34:35.194-07:00Review: Two Alone (1934)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf93tM3I2S35v9skRdmbGhTyuvwbKPv5_r20YNHfs9lbbS9qs2mkSapJhbZOVwuyxCgD2I5LjhhXVmLL2GnVxm3kBhNTq5teF67piGgJ_W61GeqbkccTaTXjIvWPvF0ElA6P0NnGy9hZ0/s1600/twoaloneportlc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf93tM3I2S35v9skRdmbGhTyuvwbKPv5_r20YNHfs9lbbS9qs2mkSapJhbZOVwuyxCgD2I5LjhhXVmLL2GnVxm3kBhNTq5teF67piGgJ_W61GeqbkccTaTXjIvWPvF0ElA6P0NnGy9hZ0/s320/twoaloneportlc.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Mazie (Jean Parker) lives in a world as bleak and unforgiving as a Grant Wood painting. An orphan, she was adopted into a life of drudgery and servitude by a harsh farm family, headed by the deplorable Slag (<span class="itemprop" itemprop="name">Arthur Byron) and his shrewish wife (Beulah Bondi). Their daughter, Corie (Nydia Westman, who you'll hear more about soon), doesn't seem to care for Mazie one way or another, only noticing her existence to laugh at her.</span><br />
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<span class="itemprop" itemprop="name">Somehow, despite the lack of love and affection, this little weed has grown into a wildflower; Mazie is beautiful, dreamy-eyed, and curious. Her only friend on the farm is George Marshall (</span><span class="itemprop" itemprop="name">Willard Robertson), an older hired hand, and her heart is broken when he leaves -- though he does promise to come back and save her someday.</span><br />
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<span class="itemprop" itemprop="name">One day, Mazie stumbles across Adam (Tom Brown), a troubled young man on the run, and treats him with the first compassion he's ever known. They recognize something in each other, these two castoffs, and before they know it they've formed a bond -- one they will desperately need to hang on to...</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgznNUi-hoCU92kl9Vz02Tu8-T7bGITnSoQLRod4bO7X4hguQ81C71_Q4B3X1311kDIaNGEBXawvFNgUfNoUz0z76BaUBFtf6HNdbiRYD7C9c2A4DGOWC-LxavJqEqXUTdIU2McyN9-f6o/s1600/2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgznNUi-hoCU92kl9Vz02Tu8-T7bGITnSoQLRod4bO7X4hguQ81C71_Q4B3X1311kDIaNGEBXawvFNgUfNoUz0z76BaUBFtf6HNdbiRYD7C9c2A4DGOWC-LxavJqEqXUTdIU2McyN9-f6o/s320/2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span class="itemprop" itemprop="name">This movie touched me. It's a soapy programmer, to be sure, and it starts a bit slow and rickety, but the performances are disarming. Jean Parker imbues Mazie with an innocence that never devolves into dopeyness or gullibilty; both she and Tom Brown have such freshness, such vulnerability, that their love story never seems syrupy or overblown. </span> Arthur Byron plays one of the coldest, meanest characters in recent memory, and just when you think he might be softening...well, I don't want to give it away. Charley Grapewin injects a bit of humor into the movie's darker moments with a small but pivotal role, and Zasu Pitts has a cameo as his long-suffering daughter.<br />
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<i>Two Alone </i>is a thinly-veiled Cinderella story, but it is also a very real and poignant tale of first love. IMDb says it is also known as <i>Wild Birds</i>; it's worth seeing under any name.<br />
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<span class="itemprop" itemprop="name">I give this one:</span><br />
<img src="http://i41.tinypic.com/5bwxfn.jpg" /><img src="http://i41.tinypic.com/5bwxfn.jpg" /><img src="http://i41.tinypic.com/5bwxfn.jpg" /><img src="http://i41.tinypic.com/5bwxfn.jpg" />Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17519672156109642104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078055360046475963.post-63836959213383819432013-05-02T05:35:00.000-07:002013-05-02T05:35:33.036-07:00Lightning FlyerShe was Dot sometimes, or Little Alabam',<br />
Started a Scandal up there on the stage,<br />
When in her cups, her friends called her Slam,<br />
At MGM, all the rage.<br />
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A beauty just brimming with humor and fun,<br />
Her <i>joie de vivre </i>showed in her face, in her carriage,<br />
She mended the stone face and heart of someone,<br />
In spite of his marriage.<br />
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Forever supporting, rarely the lead,<br />
The role didn't matter -- her presence shone stronger.<br />
A daughter of silents who vanished with speed...<br />
Wish you'd stayed longer.<br />
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<a href="http://www.dorothysebastian.com/websitenews.html">Dorothy Sebastian</a></div>
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<br />Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17519672156109642104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078055360046475963.post-55023232691510007492013-04-25T07:36:00.001-07:002013-04-25T07:37:19.523-07:00Potpourri is the Bees' KneesBoy, this week really got away from me! I had wanted to post a Silent Stanzas poem for you this week -- been so long since I did one -- but between doctors and plumbers and personal drama I never got a chance! <br />
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Next week, I promise. </div>
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Your consolation <strike>prize</strike> post: some weird / interesting assorted stuff I've collected the last few weeks.</div>
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They were really gaga for legs in the 20s. From <i>Photoplay</i>, January 1926:</div>
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No home should be without one. Presenting the John Bunny statue, <i>Motion Picture, </i>August 1914:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtNHU8cLlE0sn4FZdwpqgzmOgz9XtZyeW7bBtA7EwWDXvnwcRWnaFfDVRgk6H9ZIYNrSKGCZy8MW78pNue4EMwWeBKRNHPX052kYpuwct22NPvZCdRHcClsjPq1vJWq6SVdMrMmpXWMPg/s1600/motion+picture+aug+1914+-+john+bunny+statue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtNHU8cLlE0sn4FZdwpqgzmOgz9XtZyeW7bBtA7EwWDXvnwcRWnaFfDVRgk6H9ZIYNrSKGCZy8MW78pNue4EMwWeBKRNHPX052kYpuwct22NPvZCdRHcClsjPq1vJWq6SVdMrMmpXWMPg/s320/motion+picture+aug+1914+-+john+bunny+statue.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I AM SMUT! <i>Film Truth</i>, Nov 1920:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3x_ELNfi2nLodNrke2maqJ5oA7fXBwNjxvEXICmBrUzy6FVPN01vUAdSORyYgyriakD7Jj1E2KC8Q_335TCJqSKzdh-9SonB5nK0iL6WUW1u2g8D17TXawsvNFJQ0rZrjupQcw9Bqx6Y/s1600/Smut,+FilmTruth,+Nov.1920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3x_ELNfi2nLodNrke2maqJ5oA7fXBwNjxvEXICmBrUzy6FVPN01vUAdSORyYgyriakD7Jj1E2KC8Q_335TCJqSKzdh-9SonB5nK0iL6WUW1u2g8D17TXawsvNFJQ0rZrjupQcw9Bqx6Y/s320/Smut,+FilmTruth,+Nov.1920.jpg" width="223" /></a></div>
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And finally, everyone's favorite Keystone comic: GEORGE Chaplin? <i>Motion Picture</i>, August 1914:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzmhJicAwonq_REgzKURpOMkDIS6dxunLFfrdaQb_QG3sN-FG4ZmDPpcnBbDH-4CICv5i8ehnWF28uXKCcXFhUMURbWu8ve9FFqTNgaVNbaqFjnhVHwif581jhJmJ2onUmWxWedvJSME4/s1600/motion+picture+mag+aug+1914+-+george+chaplin-edit.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzmhJicAwonq_REgzKURpOMkDIS6dxunLFfrdaQb_QG3sN-FG4ZmDPpcnBbDH-4CICv5i8ehnWF28uXKCcXFhUMURbWu8ve9FFqTNgaVNbaqFjnhVHwif581jhJmJ2onUmWxWedvJSME4/s320/motion+picture+mag+aug+1914+-+george+chaplin-edit.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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See you next week!</div>
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Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17519672156109642104noreply@blogger.com3